Crafts, Crafts, Crafts

by Steph // Saturday, December 2, 2017 // Comments off

There is a creative side to me that needs to come out once in a while.

I used to achieve this by making scrapbooks full of our family photos.

Now-a-days I plan crafts for Tate and Eliza and sometimes make the craft with them!

Lately the middle boys have been asking to make the crafts I have planned for the littles!

The more the merrier!

I get all my craft ideas off of pinterest.

What did we ever do before pinterest?

Here the kiddos are making Christmas trees out of paper plates.

At first I just had out pom poms, beads, and white yarn.

Then I dumped out our envelope of stickers!

The stickers were a hit with the littles.

Much more to their level.

The trees turned out cute and each one was unique!

Yes, there was glitter EVERYWHERE!

I searched one morning for some crafts that we could add to our Christmas tree as ornaments.

It is so big that it looks kind of bare!

I saw this craft and so we tried it out!

It was going ok until we had to bake them.

They were STINKY.

Like really, really STINKY.

Duh.

I was cooking plastic at 450 degrees!

What was I thinking I would smell??

We had the whole house open while they were baking for the 12 minutes they needed to bake.

Praise God for 50 degree days lately!

They came out of the cookie cutters easily, and the results were cute.

But we won’t be making these ones again.

I have another cookie cutter melting craft planned though!

With peppermint candies!

Now that should smell good!

I just LOVE, love, love planning things like this for the kids.

And they all get so excited over the most simple things!

It is never lost on Blake and I how much enthusiasm these kiddos live life with!

They never need to be impressed – even the little things bring them so much joy!

I think there will be lots more crafts in our upcoming school days!

Our Day To Day

by Steph // Thursday, November 30, 2017 // Comments off

Last week we took a break from school for the Thanksgiving holiday!

I had originally planned to have school on Monday and Tuesday, but when Eliza woke up Monday morning and I saw how swollen the left side of her face was, I knew our day was not going to go as I had planned.

She also was having pain and crying about it hurting.

Eliza and I headed to the doctor Monday morning to have her checked out.

The doctor was not sure what was going on with Eliza’s cheek, and wanted to wait and see how the next couple of days went.

Tuesday morning when Eliza woke up, the outside of her cheek was red, and it was still just as swollen, if not more swollen, and still hurting.

By the time I called the doctor, the red was streaking up her nose and was on her forehead.

Back to the doctor we went, and got some antibiotics.

Just to set the story straight – Eliza would not do the natural things we wanted her to do before I called the doctor instead.

The infection was making us nervous!

So we chose antibiotics, and I am glad we did.

She drank her antibiotics twice a day without any problems!

We took a little buddy to the doctor with us the second time!

I love how the Lord knew these two needed each other.

Since we are speaking of strange medical happenings around here, I could mention that a couple weeks ago Eliza woke up with this on her hand.

We used warm compresses and some essential oils to try to draw the infection out.

It got worse before it got better!

Our sweet baby girl!

We also had the privilege the weekend before Thanksgiving to keep Clyde and Ellie while David, Kayla and River went on an anniversary get-away trip!

Now, I am here to tell you, this is the GOOD life!!

Even when I can’t get a proper photo of that GOOD life!

I had lots of helping hands that weekend, and when it was over we all agreed it was the BEST weekend ever!!

Minus the poor photography, of course!

Some other day to day things include our weekly trip to the library!

Some times we stop for a treat while we are in town!

And some times we bring a pilgrim home from the library!

Guitar practice is a daily thing around here too.

I LOVE hearing those guitars in this house!

Having working people come and go is normal too.

Sometimes some little people hang on tight so they can’t leave!

Chad time is always a sweet time on our schedule!

Chad plans something for the younger three for 30 minutes while I run around like a crazy lady getting some stuff done!

Our days here are FULL – but I wouldn’t want it any other way!!

This is such a sweet season we are in!

As always, there is SO much I never want to forget!

Snowy Ridge

by Steph // Tuesday, November 28, 2017 // Comments off

We have had a past tradition where we would go to a Christmas tree farm and cut down our Christmas tree on Thanksgiving weekend!

For the last two years since Tate has been home, this has not happened though.

It was time to get this tradition going again!

Sunday was the day!

And a beautiful day it was!

The weather this past week has been AMAZING.

We headed a few minutes up the road to a place we had never been before called Snowy Ridge.

It was a GORGEOUS tree farm.

Hannah and Bekah had been to church with us and were spending the afternoon with us too!

We had such a nice walk through the fields of the farm!

It was SO sunny and WARM!

The bad news about this gorgeous place was that they had been open for three days and were SOLD OUT of trees.

The owner told us if Blake wanted to take his truck and head to another field (that we could see but was pretty far away), we might find a tree there.

We sent Blake, Addie and Chad to go and look!

The rest of us checked out the fun areas of the farm.

Like the little zip line!

There was a bigger zip line, but the kiddos Mama said “no way!”

She is so mean, I tell ya!

We measured a few peeps.

Because the photo opp was too cute to pass up!

We also checked out the hot chocolate and cookie lodge!

It was adorable!

Even though we could not drink or eat anything!

Pretty soon Blake and his helpers were back with a tree!

YAY!

It had a yellow tag on it, which meant it was damaged, so we got it for $10.

Perfect!!

We loved Snowy Ridge SO much that I would like to make it a new part of our tradition!

We will just need to make sure next time we are there on opening day!

Tate thought this tradition was “the best day ever!!”

There is nothing better than seeing life through Tate and Eliza’s eyes.

He was right!

It was the best day ever!!

I think our Christmas tree hunting tradition is here to stay!

Thanksgiving 2017

by Steph // Sunday, November 26, 2017 // Comments off

What a blessed time we have had this Thanksgiving weekend!

We enjoyed preparing for some sweet friends to join us for a meal on Thanksgiving day!

We planned a pretty traditional meal!

Roasted chicken, pork roasts, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans with bacon and garlic, stuffing, cranberry applesauce, orange bread with cranberry orange butter, and a pear pomegranate salad.

YUM!

Addie Mae also made an apple and pumpkin pie for dessert!

Our friends brought some yummy additions to the meal, and these Brussels sprouts were a huge hit!

We had such a nice day being together!

The kids played games all afternoon!

The guys have been hunting some this weekend, and on Friday they did quite a bit.

The littles and I had a slow, easy morning!

Kayla and the babies joined us after lunch, and we spent the afternoon together while the guys hunted and the babies napped!

Eliza told us on Friday that River was not a boy.

“He a girl, Mom!”

Of course I corrected her, but then she said, “No, he a girl, because look at his eyelashes!”

Hard to argue with her about his eyelashes!!

He is ADORABLE!!!

Pretty soon it was time for another spread of food!

This fruit salsa with cinnamon sugar chips made out of tortillas was a HIT!

I did not get good photos on Friday!

See those toothpicks in the bottom of the photo below?

Those are pitted dates, stuffed with a roasted/salted almond, wrapped in bacon and baked until the bacon was done.

SERIOUSLY.

They are SO yummy!

I think I ate four of those.

And right past that in the photo below?

Peppers stuffed with loaded guacamole.

Yes, Kayla has ruined me with loaded guacamole.

She puts all kinds of stuff in it!

Including bacon.

Good grief, it is SO good!

At one point during the holidays each year, Addie Mae makes us these chocolate covered pomegranate arils.

You MUST make these!

They are my favorite!

Kay’s (as we call David, Kayla and the babies), have been dealing with impetigo (a skin infection), which is why sweet Ellie Joy was wearing a band-aid across her cute little nose!